Keep your distance from it

The boys are sick. Baby J has yet another cold, resulting in the usual runny nose, inability to breath, lack of appetite, lack of sleep, fragile emotional states all around hoopla that we thought we were done with. So far, this bout seems more minor, so we shall see, but there have two rough, sleepless nights already. He came down with the sniffles on Thanksgiving day, which then escalated into a runny nose of epic proportions (truly, I have yet to see so much snot ever in my life), then the sleeplessness, the pitiful whining, then a horrible cough, which made him lose his voice, so we went to see the doctor yesterday and came away with yet another round of antibiotics, for the ear infection he also has. Doctor: has he been pulling at his ears? Mommy: no, not at all...until just now, that is. Baby J: (shoving his finger in his ear as hard as he could, something he had not done at all until that moment). Doctor: Ummm, sure, let's just take a look...oh, surprise, he has an ear infection, too. Mommy: (hangs her head in shame). Whatever happens, We will NOT be repeating our four rounds of September/October antibiotic treatments. Baby J couldn't take that again and neither could I. We will be getting a humidifier (though I can hardly believe it in this state) and seeing how things develop.

Meanwhile, the real sicky is the husband. He had his nose surgery on Tuesday, which went well, if you count blood running from his nose and down his throat, looking like a train hit him after the general anesthesia, and many pain medications. And then, a few nights later, he got a horrible headache and then chills and finally a fever. I found him pacing at the foot of the bed two nights ago, shivering, looking for the pain meds and another blanket, stumbling around feverish and delusional. After I got him settled in a sweatshirt, a tuke, and another blanket in our 72 degree house, I knew we were in trouble. He and Baby J stayed home from church and both looked awful when I got back, red-eyed, bleary, achy, awful. But the husband pulled himself out of bed, 102.8 temp and all, to go be an extra in a movie yesterday for 13 and half hours. When he finally returned, STILL with a temperature, I suggested there might be a bigger infection from the surgery going on and we might want to page the ENT on call, which he let me do, a sign that he just might agree with me. He was off to work anyway this morning, having missed a week already (though part of that was Thanksgiving), but the doctor on call was promising to get him in to see his surgeon, so we shall see there, as well.

And me? As I told my mother, I am willing my blood to be radioactive, capable of fighting off all germs, bacteria, viruses, whathaveyou no matter how many times they are smeared on my cheeks, chest, pants, hands or no matter how often I breath them in. So far, so good. Never mind that slightly sore throat this morning. I'm sure it was just the dry air. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!